


Some Sort of Crisis

by RikaNeedsCoffee



Series: Some People are Stupid [2]
Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Awkward Crush, But also kind of both of them? Whatever i love them, Fluff, High School, Honestly it's just Karma being stupid for a week, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:21:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23139148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RikaNeedsCoffee/pseuds/RikaNeedsCoffee
Summary: Gakushuu Asano; the supreme leader of Kunugigaoka, feared and revered in equal measures by the general public, known to be boundlessly remarkable and unrelentingly stubborn, and quite possibly the son of an actual demon.Also: Gakushuu Asano, someone who Karma Akabane wants to hold hands and take out to the mall to watch movies with.Fuck.
Relationships: Akabane Karma/Asano Gakushuu
Series: Some People are Stupid [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663270
Comments: 11
Kudos: 280





	Some Sort of Crisis

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya!! So this is the second thing im ever posting, and it's directly connected to the first thing I posted, but you don't really have to read that to understand this. Comments would be much appreciated, and, uh, with that, I hope you all enjoy!!

It all starts on a day so ordinary it's almost laughable. They're out eating Yogurt, because Gakushuu is boring, telling him he eats too much junk food and refusing to go buy ice cream with him, so of course Karma had to oblige and follow Shuu to this small FroYo shop just off the side of the road where they walk back from Kunugigaoka.

Everything's nice; the warm weather, the lack of any significant schoolwork to be done right away, and the couch that he's sitting on as he eats Yogurt and watches Gakushuu do his homework in advance. God, what a nerd.

When he tells Gakushuu as much, the other boy just snorts, the corners of his lips stretching out just the slightest bit, and he tells Karma, "Better that than a disorganized mess."

He doesn't say ' _like you are_ ', and he doesn't have to, because Karma replies all the same. "Hey, when you die of burn-out from all your overwork, I'll be here, laughing and dancing on your grave." Gakushuu rolls his eyes, but Karma continues nonetheless. "Besides, people expect less of you when you do the bare minimum, so when you actually start exerting effort, everyone's gonna be all impressed."

"No need to be defensive," Gakushuu says lightly, and looks up to level Karma with a stare. Then, he does the strangest thing. 

He _grins_ , and it's not like Karma's never seen him do that before; he has, on multiple occasions even, and usually on the account of getting a higher grade tham Karma on a test, but the thing about this in particular was that it wasn't shit-eating or cocky. 

There was no trace of arrogance to be found, just a simple, strangely endearing childishness to it that made Karma's chest tighten and made his heartbeat stutter ever so slightly. He doesn't really get it, but he can always rationalize that, objectively, Gakushuu _is_ attractive, and he's always been that way. This is just Karma's stupid reaction to witnessing it first hand, is all.

Then, Gakushuu continues, telling him, "You're a mess, yeah, but it isn't like I'd have you any other way at this point."

And Karma _really_ doesn't know where that's coming from, but it makes him feel all weird and happy to hear it anyways. 

_Shit_. He thinks to himself. _I do not have a thing for Gakushuu Asano._

* * *

Naturally, he tells Nagisa about it. It's just that he didn't really mean to. There's just this quality about Nagisa that makes you lower your guard around him, that makes you trust him without any conscious effort on his part.

"So what you're telling me--" Nagisa says as they walk around the mall. He has nothing to do right now, because Gakushuu ended up roping him into doing homework together, but fortunately Nagisa was also free, "--is that you have a crush on Asano."

"That is absolutely not what I'm saying," Karma responds, because it _wasn't_. He liked Gakushuu, of course, but that didn't immediately have to translate to attraction, did it? When he looks up, he can see a poster for the new Sonic Ninja movie, and it's on the tip of his tongue to point it out, when Nagisa halts walking.

"Oh," Nagisa starts, skepticism heavy on his tone, "So, you just mean to tell me that you want to hold his hand, and go on dates, and maybe kiss him, but you absolutely don't have a crush on him."

Karma's immediate response is to level Nagisa with a narrow-eyed stare. "Okay, first of all, I never said any of that."

Nagisa raises a brow, exuding disbelief and unamusement in equal measures. He nods his head sagely. "Mhm."

"I didn't!" Karma almost laughs out, hitting Nagisa's shoulder so lightly it could almost be seen as a tap. 

"Okay, but, hypothetically speaking, if you could do those, would you?" Nagisa doesn't so much ask as he does state. It isn't a question; it sounds more like an assertion, a message telling him that Nagisa's willing to put up with his bullshit, because he's always possessed a kindness that Karma would scarcely know what to do with, but also a message telling him that his denial is far off the mark from being believable.

Karma doesn't really want to think about it, though, and other than kindness, Nagisa possesses a clairvoyance that assures Karma he wouldn't press on if Karma didn't want to talk about it anymore. With the subtelty of a falling anvil, he switches the topic, saying, "I saw a poster a few stores back for a New Sonic Ninja movie. Let's watch the premier together?" 

He nudges his head to the poster's direction. Nagisa turns and hums in acknowledgement. Then, he frowns at Karma. "That's on a Wednesday, sorry. I have to go help Akuri pick out clothes for an upcoming interview. You're welcome to go without me, though; I'll probably just watch on some other day."

"It's cool; I'll just invite Gakushuu, I guess." Karma shrugs. Then, upon realizing Nagisa's reason for busy, his face splits into a grin. "So, speaking of Akuri..."

The embarrassment on Nagisa's face is worth getting hit in the face with an umbrella later on.

* * *

Karma's denial of his budding feelings for Gakushuu was fun and all, but he knew from the get-go that it wouldn't last. He had to admit, though; it was a little ironic how he snapped out of it not because of Gakushuu himself, but because of some random student council member.

His name is Yako, or Yata, or something, the Council Treasurer, and he's a rambly sort of nervous person who jittered a bit too much in Karma's presence. At some point, as Karma tries to wring a decent conversation out of him, the meek little treasurer ends up letting it slip that Gakushuu's been leaving a good 5 or 10 minutes earlier than he usually does.

"I-in fact," Treasurer boy barely manages to stutter out, "he moved next w-weeks meeting from Wednesday to Thursday. He n-never explicitly stated it or anything, but we a-all think he might have a s-secret girlfriend or something. He t-told us he had "a prior engagement", and t-that he's sorry, but that's pr-probably code word for "date", right? I mean-"

Before he can finish another pitifully fragmented sentence, Karma rushedly tells him, "Hey, sorry, I gotta go now," and breaks in to a run for the nearest bathroom he can find, eyes wide and body tense.

When he does get there, he locks the door and stares at the mirror, making no small effort to try and ignore how red he's become. It's because he ran all the way here, is all, and so is the rapid beating of his heart. It speaks nothing of how much it pleases him that Gakushuu would move a meeting for their movie, or how apparently Gakushuu might see it as a date and still decided to accept his invitation.

Okay, fuck it.

Who was he kidding here? Gakushuu had two student council meetings a week, Mondays and Wednesdays, and God knows how tightly packed his schedule was _regardless_ of those two meetings. He had tutoring sessions, sports clubs that he alternated every other week, and a crapton more that Karma's far too lazy to memorize. Christ only know how the boy manages to finish all his homework and have a decent social life.

And now? Here Karma was, with his reflection showing him a face far closer to the color of his hair than any regular human complexion, because damn it, how hard would it have been for Gakushuu to just tell Karma that they could watch the day after? That he was busy and adjusting would be hard for him?

Karma turns on the tap and washes his face, and he thinks to himself that doing that would've definitely been difficult, but it certainly wasn't any harder than refusing his newfound-- _crush_ on Gakushuu.

Denial was fun and all, but he always knew it wouldn't last, because Gakushuu is, at the surface, difficult, but these past few months spending time with him has made Karma realize that being around him was the easiest thing in the world.

* * *

To some extent, Karma thinks that the only reason he gets so much leeway with Gakushuu is that he's the only one shameless enough to ask for it. While others may feign decency at the fearsome Council President, Karma saw no harm in telling him he looked like shit everytime finals was around the corner, or asking him to treat Karma to strawberry cheesecake, or even laughing in glee as he sees Gakushuu scowl at the one mistake he made during their quiz.

It isn't that he doesn't realize how menacing Gakushuu can be(he still shudders at the memory of getting a swift kick to the face during the school's pole-toppling event, and even then, he has to concede that the guy's changed a lot since middle school, and mostly for the better, too); he does, but it wasn't like he minded or disliked it in any sense of the word. Gakushuu was irritable even at the best of times, but he was never cruel, and, to a certain degree, Karma knew he had a compassion to him that was only made foggy by his less than ideal upbringing.

Still, though, changing his God-awful schedule for the sake of watching a premier he could've very much just watched on a different day? That was just something else. That _had_ to be something else, right?

When he brings it up to Nakamura, she flashes him a cheeky grin and mockingly says, "Ahh, young love."

Karma, not willing to back down, sends her a matching smirk. "Yep, definitely. I should've known it all along that he was so in love with me he'd be willing to do that."

"Not him, stupid." Nakamura rolls her eyes. " _You_."

"What?" Karma says, confusion palpable in his voice. "Why me? Have you not been listening?"

Nakamura gets up from where she was sitting on the bench of the foodcourt they're currently in. She places her hands, palms down, on the table in front of her, and levels Karma an eyebrow raise.

"Yes, Karma. I have, in fact been listening to you rant on and on about our precious little Asano-kun for the past--" she checks her phone for the time, "-- _53 minutes_ , and what I've gotten out of it is that you are utterly fucking smitten."

The intense shade of red Karma turns into right then and there is not something he'll ever care to admit as he blabbers pitifully, "No?! I'm not! He's just-- or, and I'm--"

"You're _what_?" Nakamura cuts through viciously, eyes gleeful and curious, but tone more on edge. "You called me instead of Nagisa because you knew he wouldn't take your bullshit the way I would? You bought a random fish keychain awhile ago because you thought he would like it? You've been talking about him since 5:30, and now it's almost been an hour since and you still. Haven't. Stopped?"

There's a long, heavy pause after that, because all of those things were true, and that's simply not information Karma can bear to face with a legitimate gameplan as of the moment.

"Listen, man." Nakamura takes an inhale and smiles at him kindly, a smile that's as small as it is rare to see from her. "I am your friend, and I support you 100% in your pursuit of someone _way_ beyond your league, but you have to understand that you're being a biiiit ridiculous in this gay crisis of yours."

Karma realizes as much, of course, and he knows he ought to be grateful that he's got people like Nakamura to count on, and while she may not always be the most compassionate, or even the most decent at times, he's always assured by the fact that they've built a friendship over the years that ensures she's always got his best interest at heart.

"Fine, you're right, I'm being a little dumb," Karma concedes with a dramatic sigh. He watches as she sits back down, and he informs her, "You got one thing wrong, though."

Nakamura raises a brow, crossing one leg over the other as she leans in closer to him. Karma knows it's a crisis, with or without Nakamura's labelling of it as such, but it wasn't really about him liking a guy, was it? It was about him liking an insufferable fucking bastard who made even skimming the sky with your fingertips look like a goal that was far too unambitious.

"It's not so much a 'gay crisis' as it's just... a 'Gakushuu Asano' crisis."

* * *

There's this quaint little café residing just a few blocks North of Kunugigaoka that the two of them like to visit together sometimes. Gakushuu's schedule is monstrous, to say the least, but Karma whines and complains like a bitch until Gakushuu gives in, picking up his stuff and letting Karma drag them both to the café so he can do his work there rather than in that "ancient, boring meeting room", as Karma enjoys calling it.

The other day, Nakamura had told him, "Y'know, he might not have moved the meeting just for you. Extenuating circumstances and all that." and Karma _knows_ ; he's been, from the very start, prepared to face the possibility that none of this was meant to be taken as more than coincidence, but he simply could never be ready to leave it in the air. He had to know what it all meant, if it meant anything, or he would go insane.

Gakushuu's currently approving some club-budget proposals, and his head is dipped down in a way that allows his bangs to obscure parts of his face. Absently, Karma wonders when he's gonna get his hair cut.

"Hey, I heard your meeting got moved." He tries to say it nonchalant as can be, leaning back on his chair to feign comfort rather than to feel it. 

"Oh, yeah. It did." Gakushuu doesn't bother looking up, still facing the small stack of papers before him. He signs a few of them every so often, and otherwise just highlights bits and pieces of the rest. "You said the movie thing was on Wednesday, didn't you?"

Gakushuu says it so casually, and it almost grates on Karma's nerves a little bit, because it almost seemed like such a little thing to Gakushuu when it spelled out so many things that Karma wanted to remain blind to, like the fact thag it brought him far too much delight to think that he would be worth moving meetings for, or how he's still in the dark, because to be completely frank, Gakushuu is bad at every single kind of relationship there is, but he _has_ to know what he's doing, right?

If he didn't... it would be terrifying, because then the fact that Karma might be falling for him a little will be met with the possibility that Gakushuu's doing it all subconsciously, effortlessly; then where would they be? Is Karma actually just putting too much meaning into this when it doesn't rea--

"Karma. Karma!" 

He's rudely snapped out of his reverie when he feels a flick on his forehead. He looks up, probably looking akin to a deer in the headlights, and says stupidly, "What? Sorry."

Gakushuu gives him a weird expression, then; something sort of like a smirk, but with concern tracing the edges of it, and Gakushuu asks him, "Aww, are you going senile now? Is that why you've got so much trouble hearing me?"

"Shut up," Karma scowls, but he finds the responding smile on Gakushuu's face cute all the same.

* * *

It's almost 6 in the evening and it's raining _so hard_. It's a Thursday the week before their date-- not a date-- their _movie_ , and he's waiting for Gakushuu just outside the Student Council room. He's so glad he didn't rely on weather forecasts that said it would be fairly sunny today like Gakushuu did, because he's snuggled in his jacket, and it's cold but he's comfortable.

It takes a few more minutes, but eventually the door opens and everyone exits ony by one. Karma decides to go in because he knows from experience that Gakushuu's going to clean up a bit first, like the paranoid freak he is.

On his way in at the theshold of the door, he passes by the Student Council secretary, Amemiya Misaki, and the coat she's wearing on her way out is awfully familiar. He frowns just a bit but carries on, saying nothing. When Karma settles into the room, Gakushuu is setting a neat file of papers into a drawer. 

"I saw Misaki pass by. You gave her your coat?"

Gakushuu turns and meets his gaze. He shurgs airily. "Yeah. She left her jacket at home and I didn't want her to get sick."

"What about you?" Karma tilts his head as Gakushuu moves to close any remaining cabinet or drawer. Gakushuu walks over to him and leans against the table he's in front of. 

"It was the polite thing to do. My own circumstances are negligible here."

There's that wording again, the one that makes Karma just the slightest bit afraid. _The polite thing._ He's never sure if the things Gakusbuu does are out of sincere concern or if he's only been conditioned to act that way. Did he give Misaki his coat because he genuinely cared about her health, or because it was the social norm? And, subsequently, does he hang out with Karma and do nice things for him because they're friends, or...?

Liking someone is so fucking complicated.

It's difficult, too, even more so due to the fact that he's cultivated this weird feeling in his gut that tugs at him and tells him he doesn't want Gakushuu getting wet with rain, or, worse yet, sick.

"Ugh," he grumbles lowly, unzipping his hoodie and offering it out to Gakushuu. "Just-- just take mine."

There's a small moment of silence, short, but enough to make Karma wonder if he somehow did something weird or wrong, but then Gakushuu smiles a little, not enough to be evident, but it's there. He looks up at Karma, eyes glazed over with what looks like mild shock, and he takes the jacket.

"Okay," he says, putting it on. "Okay, yeah. But if you get sick because of this, then that's on you."

Karma laughs, not really knowing why, as he walks out the door with Gakushuu trailing behind. "I won't. I'm sure you brought an umbrella."

And they enter the storm, pressed tightly against each other under the protection of a single small umbrella, but it's comfortable all the same.

* * *

He's sitting behind the bleachers for lunch, as per usual. Karma doesn't usually eat with Gakushuu, because apparently, a good 80% of the student body wanted to sit with him, and Karma enjoyed chaotic, sure, but not crowded.

He usually makes it a point to remain hidden, tactically sitting where two bushes would meet to ensure his seclusion. Somehow, though, Sakakibara Ren still manages to find him.

"What are you doing?" He says, and when Karma looks up, he sees narrowed eyes and crossed arms. The question he asks is so vague that Karma wonders how he's meant to be the Virtuoso who excels in Japanese.

"Minding my own business." Karma smirks obnoxiously, in a way he knows will get him the annoyance he desires. "I take it you're not very skilled at that?"

"Very cute," Sakakibara practically growls out. "I meant, with Asano."

Now _that_ catches Karma's attention, and where he'd been gazing at Sakakibara with mild contempt before, he now stared with a concern that wasn't all that subtle. "What? Did something happen to him?"

For some reason, this response only makes Sakakibara even more agitated, and he rolls his eyes, telling Karma, "He came to school today wearing a hideous black jacket that everyone knows is yours."

Ah, right. Truth be told, he'd also felt surprised upon seeing Gakushuu still wearing his jacket, but it wasn't like Karma was going to complain about it. Seriously, though? Is this honestly what Sakakibara's so on edge about?

Karma shrugs his shoulders, hoping it would illustrate to Sakakibara how very trivial Gakushuu wearing his jacket was. "It was raining last night and he lent his coat to Misaki." 

"And it's sunny righ now and he hasn't taken it back from her," Sakakibara shoots back at lightning speed. Then, he sighs, shutting his eyes tight before opening them once more to glance at Karma directly. 

"Be honest with me," Sakakibara says, and there's something about being under his watch like this that made Karma all too aware of how he was being stared down at. "Are you two dating?"

 _Well_. That certainly excalated quickly.

Karma hopes the Virtuoso doesn't catch on to how his breath hitches. Once the shock settles down, though, he delights far too much at the idea of the two of them dating. He delights, but it's all stained in guilt anyways, so he decides not to focus too much on that.

At the end of it, he's a decent guy, and he tells the truth. "No, we aren't."

After that confession, Sakakibara's gaze softens, like a layer of ice has been peeled back, just enough to make his scrutiny feel more bearable. Then, "Half the school population thinks that you are."

Karma gives him a look, as though to say, _and?_

"Fix it," Sakakibara says-- comands, more like it-- and stomps off, probably to go meet Gakushuu anyways.

Karma inhales deeply. Christ, how was this supposed to work now? He runs a hand through his hair and eats the rest of his lunch. Afterwards, he gets up, deciding he'd deal with it eventually just as he usually does.

* * *

The weekend before the movie premier, Karma decides to hang out with Nakamura again. The difference is that, strangely, this time she's decided to bring Itona with her. Karma doesn't exactly have good memories him, but insofar he's been a good kid, and Karma thinks it appropriate to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"I brought him," Nakamura says slowly, picking at her fries. They're in some cheap fastfood joint a little bit on the side of the road from Karma's house to Nakamura's as she continues, "because he gives solid advice, and you just really fucking need it."

"What," Karma replies elegantly, eyeing the other boy, who, in turn, has no qualms staring back at him. 

"Nakamura-san told me that you like the principal's son." There's this lack of any sort of emotion in Itona's voice that somehow makes his tone more nuanced than most.

"Actually, I don't," Karma replies, adopting the speech mannerisms of a pretentious movie stereotype. "The principal isn't his dad anymore."

At that, Nakamura rolls her eyes, and even Itona manages to look more deadpan than he did previously. "Okay, yeah fine. I might--"

" _Do_ ," Nakamura asserts.

"--like him, but it's not really... important, right? I can like him and just be his friend." There's a traitorous little voice at the back of his head that asks, _Can you?_ And he promptly decides to stamp it down.

As it so happens, Itona seems to doubt him just as much as he doubts himself, if the expression on his face is anything to go by. Thankfully, though, he stays quiet. Nakamura, on the other hand, doesn't quite pay him the same courtesy.

"You act like I haven't known you long enough for me to know how little self control you have," she says, and there's a lilt to her voice that sounds on the verge of laughing. 

"No worries, though," she continues, winking. "We'll help you figure this out."

"Thanks," Karma replies at that, and he means it.

* * *

Later, they're at the nearby park, and Nakamura's yawning as Karma finishes recounting the whole Asano story to Itona.

The boy just looks up at him, and to some extent he can find comfort in the lack of judgement that the blankness of his stare possesses, and Itona says, "So... you like his smile."

"Well, yeah? Of course." Karma's told this story thrice, and honestly that might be thrice too many, but it only means that he now knows how to not sound too defensive. "But that's not all? I like the fact that he brings extra calculators for people who might need it even if there's no test coming up, or that some of his notebooks have little fish patterns on the cover because his favorite movie used to be Finding Nemo. He's cute, yeah, but I don't like him because he's cute; I like him because he's--"

 _Gakushuu_.

It startles him a bit, how easy that would've been to say. But no, he stops there, and he catches the awed expression on Nakamura's face when he turns to look at her. Itona, on the other hand, remains stone-faced as ever, but he doesn't ask Karma to finish.

"Why not just tell him that?" He asks instead, and Karma has to think about that for a solid second, because he's always been direct, but this just felt different. 

When he finally realizes why, he looks at Itona, and he says, so sincerely that he even doubts he's the one saying it, "Because... he might just want to be friends, and I might be reading into all of this wrong. And, most of all, he's just starting out on the whole friendship thing; isn't it-- wouldn't it be too much to want more from him?"

Nakamura slow claps. It's even stranger because she doesn't seem to be doing it entirely just to mock him, like there's some part of the action that's actually out of genuine respect.

"You know, I thought I would die before I saw you being considerate, but I have to admit--" she grins sharply, "-- he _must_ be something if he can get you to become this much of a lovesick mess."

And that was the clincher, wasn't it? Karma admits to being ridiculous, and a little stupid, and above all else, an absolute mess, but then he smiles at Nakamura and Itona, the knowledge that they realize Gakushuu is worth this much trouble warming up his chest.

* * *

It's like there's a weird countdown going off in his brain, counting the days right before the movie, and really, it's all well and good until he realizes he and complications go hand in hand.

The rumor Sakakibara had forewarned him about-- an issue he _really_ shouldn't have just left at the back of his mind to deal with later-- had apparently spread around, and what a funny if not frustrating thing it is that he finds out from Nagisa, of all people, right after class on Monday.

"You and Asano are dating now, huh? Glad that worked out for you," Nagisa says over the phone. Karma, who'd previously been going over a few Chemistry terms on his bed, shuts his book with a resounding _thud._

"Actually, the thing is, we aren't," Karma replies, narrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

"What?" Now it's Nagisa who seems to startle, and Karma can almost perfectly visualize the look on his face, wide eyes and all. "But everyone's saying you are."

"Yeah, but--" Karma stretches out on his bed, somewhat reminiscent of a cat, "--I don't think either of us are really the type to mind rumors."

"Well, it makes sense that you wouldn't mind rumors like that floating around," Nagisa tells him, and he bristles a little in what he doesn't want to admit is a mild mix of guilt and embarrassment. "But how sure are you that Asano doesn't mind?"

For some strange reason, Karma knows how sure he is, and it's a decisive 100%. He just doesn't know _why_ he's so sure. There's nothing about Gakushuu that particularly spells out bothered at even the worst of times; he's usually just murderous, or unamused, ot exasperated, or--

"I'm actually really sure," he responds, and before Nagisa can ask him, he finishes it off saying, "I'd just like to think I've gotted to know him well enough to be completely certain."

* * *

T-minus one more day before the movie itself, and Karma has just the right blend of impulsiveness and shrewdness within him to bring up the topic of Gakushuu's schedule.

"Oh, it's nothing compared to the week I had three months ago," Gakushuu says, looking up at him. They're at his house, and he's sat on the couch as Gakushuu stays cross-legged on the carpeted floor, fiddling with an app on his phone. "But still, between planning for our latest fundraiser and trying to clear up the gym's schedule to have as a venue, it's sort of on the bad side."

"So how hard was it for you to move your meeting to Thursday instead of tomorrow?" Karma asks, before he can stop himself. He almost winces, but he stamps down the reflex.

"Why haven't you moved on from this?" Gakushuu asks, raising a brow, and his tone is colored in irritation, but Karma knows that it originates only from confusion rather than any actual frustration. Gakushuu doesn't mind it when Karma asks too many questions; it's a trait that Karma knows well and appreciates immensely.

"Because I don't want you to be having a hard time for my sake?"

"Thay's bullshit and we both know it." Okay, yeah, Karma has to admit even to himself that that was a really flimsy excuse.

"I will buy you a cookie if you answer me this one thing. Any cookie you want, and the question's not even that hard. C'mon, don't you want a cookie?" Karma gets off the couch and sits down on the table, right in front of Gakushuu's phone.

Gakushuu sighs, setting his phone down and turning his full attention onto Karma, just as he'd know Karma wanted. " _Christ_. If it matters to you so much: it was a bit tough? Some members needed more convincing than others, and we had to move to the AVR room because our usual meeting room was already booked for Thursday, but it wasn't anywhere near impossible or anything."

Karma leans down to meet his eyes. "Why do that then? It sounds like so much effort."

"What exactly do you want to hear?" Gakushuu says, and it rings in Karma's ears for a long while, because he knows that he wasn't exactly being subtle, and, furthermore, that Gakushuu isn't stupid.

And, Karma being unreasonable is nothing new, yet somehow something about this felt like crossing a line all the same. Still, Karma is a different sort of reckless, and he figures that he's already toed the line so many times that simply jumping through it should mean nothing, right?

Gakushuu sighs again in the face of his silence. "I did it because I like spending time with you. I don't really care for the movie, but because you're so excited about it, I thought it would make sense for me to give you that much. Because friends do that, I think."

"Yeah," Karma says, his throat suddenly tight. "They do. Sorry for being really pushy about it."

"It's cool." Gakushuu says, smiling now, because the universe was a bitch, and it enjoyed reminding Karma over and over again why he was having this crisis to begin with. "Forgiveness is also a friendship thing, right?"

* * *

It's Wednesday now and by _God,_ what the fuck was Karma thinking? Gakushuu's still inside the Music room, finishing up a piano assignment due in a week, and Karma's outside waiting, panicking, having a mild heart attack. 

The movie doesn't start for another two hours, with it currently being 4:30, so they'd already pre-decided to kill some time by either playing video games in an arcade (Karma's fun suggestion) or staying in some coffee shop to study (Gakushuu's boring suggestion).

Right now, he was pacing, counting the seconds before Gakushuu would exit. _Give me 12 minutes_ , Gakushuu had told him, weirdly specific as he usually was, but Karma knew that he stuck to his given estimations. It's been 9 minutes since, and now he felt like throwing up. Should he call Nagisa? No, he was with Kayano. Nakamura? Ugh. Neither of those were good options, seeing as he's only got 3 minutes more.

 _Actually!_ His brain suddenly supplies, making him stop his pacing in surprise. _What about Itona?_

The kid was blunt, direct, what have you. He'd scarcely take up a minute's conversation, would he? As impulsive as he'd been lately, he takes his phone out of his pocket and clicks on the little bandana emoji on his contacts. They'd exchanged numbers the last time they met, Nakamura wholeheartedly encouraging their "blooming friendship!", as she'd optimistically put it.

One ring, two rings--

" _Akabane-san? Isn't today supposed to be your--_ "

"Yes," Karma replies, and he's embarrassed to hear how his own voice hitches a bit. "Yes, and I'm kind of freaking out."

" _I see_." There's a short silence, before, " _Akabane-san, I'm afraid I can't give you any sort of emotional aid as of the moment."_

"That's-- fine," Karma grunts out, because it _was_ fine, and because he didn't call in need of any emotional aid to begin with. It was just-- well, what _did_ he call for? He can't say he's entirely sure.

Itona is a little quiet on the other end, and Karma can't blame him. It's not like either of them were expecting Karma to make this call. But then, somehow, thankfully, Itona is the kind of person who makes decisions quickly, and always manages to come up with the least complicated solutions.

" _Akabane-san, listen. I understand this may be a niche sort of comfort, but I can only serve to remind you of this much: the worst possible outcome is possible, but unlikely, and while I can't guarantee that everything will turn out alright, I can assure you that, from what I know of him, Asano-san is a rational sort of person, and he won't deem it appropriate to hurt you should he not feel the same as you."_

Karma listened intently, mulling the words over, repeating them in his mind and quickly internalizing them. Damn. Itona had really squared up since middle school, hadn't he? Karma was almost jealous. Still, Itona's words remained resonant in his head, and he takes a deep breath before saying, "Thank you. Nakamura was right; you actually give _hella_ solid advice."

If he wasn't mistaken, he could almost swear he heard something like a small laugh coming from the other end of the line, and Itona says, " _Then, if that'll be all._ " before ending the call with a _beep._

Karma manages to smile, despite himself, and then he turns to see Gakushuu walking towards him, notebooks tucked underneath his arm and a questioning look on his face.

"Why are you smiling like that? Should I be worried?" Gakushuu says.

"Nah," Karma replies, nerves still buzzing beneath his skin, but somehow he manages to get them to settle. "So, let's go?"

* * *

To his mild surprise, he manages to actually get Gakushuu to go arcading with him. They're in some common shooting-game booth when Gakushuu turns to him and says something that makes him want to choke.

"Ren told me something, by the way. Something like, people think we're together?" Gakushuu's eyes are glued to the screen, mercilessly slaughtering zombies even as he says all this.

 _Fuck._ Karma wants to duck out of this. He is absolutely not prepared for this. He tries repeating Itona's words in his head. _He's a good person, and besides, the worst is unlikely._

"And," Gakushuu says, still not looking at him. "I'm bringing this up because he didn't possess the tact to _not_ let it slip that he had, in fact, cornered you some few days ago, and you told him that we weren't-- _aren't._ "

Okay. This was fine. He had no idea where this was going, but this was fine, right? There were only so many places this could go, and most of them weren't really that bad.

"Anyways," Gakushuu continues with a finality in his tone. He finally sets down the plastic gun he'd been using to shoot, tilting his head to look Karma straight in the eye. "I guess all I really wanna say is... I'm sorry."

He's--what? It's mumbled out, barely audible in the way he usually speaks when he feels any sort of embarrasment, but Karma hears it all the same. Okay. Karma has accounted for at least 8 different possibilities, but this certainly wasn't one of them. What's he even sorry for? Something that his _friend_ did? That wasn't--

"You're...?" Karma starts, ignoring his erratic thoughts. "I mean. It wasn't any trouble? I was just telling the truth. And besides, it was Sakak--"

"No," Gakushuu shakes his head abruptly, and he does it in a way Karma's never seen before, shy and lacking the confidence that Gakushuu Asano is known for. He even looks down, after, and, seriously, what was going on? Karma is so confused now.

"Fuck, this is so--" Okay, Gakushuu was cursing now. "Watching movies is something you do with friends, right? Like, studying together, and buying each other food?"

"Yeah-- sure, it is." _I can't be thinking of my own feelings right now_ , Karma comes to realize, _because I'm really fucking confused, but at least in Class E, I had Nagisa and Nakamura, and Koro-sensei to lead me through the confusion._ "You don't-- have to let the rumors and shit get to you. It doesn't bother me, if that's what worries you."

It wasn't like Gakushuu's dad was exactly someone he could've turned to at the time, and they may have been cultivating a closeness with each other, but Karma still hadn't gotten the impression that he was allowed to ask about Gakushuu's mom. He was sure that Gakushuu had learned all about the different sorts of relationships you went through during adolescence, self-sufficient as he was, but he could never know how much of that knowledge was learned through actual experience rather than from books or sites on the internet.

He was popular, so he must know the feeling of having admirers, but then again, has he ever known the feeling of liking any of those admirers back? Has he ever _let_ himself, untouchable as his Gakushuu Asano image was? He'd only recently let himself be less than that image, allowing himself to slip up more and being far more forgiving of those mistakes, and subsequestly, allowing others to realize that he was very much within their realm of mortality. He was human, and he was a person who one could easily get along with, if they just broke free of their predeterminations that he wasn't.

And, luckily for Karma, he was one of the people who broke free of that, and now he stares reassuringly, patiently waiting for Gakushuu to continue. When he finally does, he does so still looking away. He inhales, deep and seemingly preparatorily, and then:

"Yeah. So. I wasn't apologizing for Ren, or for the rumors at all. I was apologizing because, well, I sort of saw it coming, going to school with your jacket and all, but I still went ahead and did that. And even going out with you so obviously? I mean, I _had_ the social awareness to have been able to avoid that, but I just-- didn't? So now--"

Karma cuts him off, and part of him knows better than to have done that, but this was a bit difficult to hear with his feelings for Gakushuu still being beyond the plane of platonic. It was like getting rejected, but indirectly, and he really just wanted to get past this conversation.

"I already told you, it's fine. No harm, no foul. It's all good. However else you want me to say it." 

Gakushuu grabs him by the lapel of his uniform and looks up to meet his eyes all at once, and it happens all too quickly that it nearly knocks all the breath out of Karma's lungs. Both of them are surprised by the sudden action, but where Karma only deigns to widen his eyes, Gakushuu seems to want to keep his momentum, unsure but unwavering.

"That's not it, dumbass!" It looks like all the previous traces of Gakushuu's anxieties had culminated to turn into this. Karma just looks at him, ignoring the feeling of his uniform cloth being stretched too tight at his shoulder. "I-- Ren is my friend, and sometimes I study with him, and I eat lunch with him almost daily, but it's not the same as with you? And, the rumors are inaccurate as fuck, because we aren't dating, but I think. I think... this movie, is this a friend thing? Because I think I don't _want_ it to be."

Holy shit.

Holy _motherfucking_ shit.

Karma is _reeling_ , confused but excited, yet somehow really fucking afraid that, for a concession as clear as _that_ , he's still reading the atmosphere all wrong, so of course he has to say the dumbest thing that comes to mind.

"You want this to be a _rival_ thing?"

There's a good five seconds of silence before Gakushuu let's go of his lapel and flicks him in the forehead, none-too-gently at that.

"Fuck you, yeah?" Gakushuu tells him, crossing his arms. "I want those dumb fucking rumors to _be_ accurate. I want--"

And he's cut off, of course, by Karma, and his idiocy, and the fact that he has to choose _now_ to let out a rambunctious bark of laughter. He _has_ to laugh, because this whole week he's been so fucking stressed over this boy, mentally and emotionally preparing for this thing that wasn't _meant_ to be a date, but then here they were, with Gakushuu doing what he did best and burning down his every expectation to the ground. Here they were, with Karma laughing in relief, or joy, or _whatever,_ as Gakushuu, the son of a bitch and the boy he liked, got to beat him to confessing.

"Fuck you, too!" Karma eventually says, and now Gakushuu's face is contorting into an expression Karma knows all too well. "You fucking suck! I was so, so fucking stressed this week, because I suddenly liked you? But then I couldn't be sure if you liked me back, right? So then I started to fucking _analyze_ every little thing you did! And I kept bothering you over dumb shit, like moving your meeting, and--"

 _God_ , it felt so good to get all of this out of his system, but what felt even better was the sudden laughter that seemed to fill Gakushuu up.

They were both fucking _idiots_ , weren't they?

Laughing harder and harder until he could hardly breathe anymore, Karma looked up and took a much needed inhale. "So, this movie? Not a friend thing anymore, I take it?"

"Yeah," Gakushuu says, beginning to lean towards Karma until his head was lying on his shoulder. "But. I think none of our things were ever 'friend' things. They were just... _us_ things? If that makes any sense."

Karma tries to be bold, then, taking Gakushuu's hand. Gakushuu doesn't flinch, or try to shake out of his grasp, and Karma figures this counted as confirmation enough that it'd be fine to intertwine their fingers together. Gakushuu reciprocates, and it's disgustingly cliché to admit but the action makes him feel warm.

"I get it," Karma says, because it really was like that, wasn't it? Them being them, bordering along the line of being friends and being more, but always assured that they had _something_ there, and whether it'd end in flames or not, well, that didn't really matter right now, did it? Because right now, something's just shifted, but really, nothing's changed, and if Karma were to kiss Gakushuu later, right after walking him home from the movie, and getting a kiss on the cheek goodbye, then that was all good, right?

But for now, he was fine. He was _happy_ , holding Gakushuu's hand and leaning his head back, made at ease by the knowledge that, for now, all his crises had been, for the most part, resolved.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I know that that was probably really messy, but I hope you had fun reading about Karma being a mess! I know I had fun writing it. And, by the by, Itona's role in this fic can be attributed to the fic 'Ordinary' by gwendee, who in general is just such an inspiration, and made me love the boy more than I already do? And i don't really know where I want it to go from here, but maybe I could just turn this into a series of oneshots about the progression of their relationship, if y'all would wanna read that. That's all for now, thanks!!


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